a few days ago, president barack obama put its hand on the lincoln and martin luther king bible and took the oath of office almost 150 years since the emancipation population went into effect. he talked about the country's historic and continuing march for greater freedom. we at the "washington monthly" found it appropriate to devote the subjects to the conditions of minorities in america today. president obama as measured by his november vote totals retained the support of the americans of color, neither he nor the country have talked about much of race. he mentioned race fewer times in his first two years than any democrat resident since 1961. when he did talk about race, it often provoked a fierce backlash as when he said last year that if he had a son, he would look like trayvon martin, the young man who was killed tragedy in florida. tremendous backlash to that. he went silent on that issue. there has been generally a politically imposed code of silence around this residence and around the country, making it difficult for our nation to acknowledge and confront discrimination in our